“You know, it's really strange,” he told Rolling Stone following the big moment. “I really haven't been thinking about it over the last 10 years and I wasn't really sure it was going to happen. I figured that after 130 million records and all the achievement we had, that eventually it would come to fruition, you know what I mean? So I [was] kind of worried about or thinking about when it's gonna happen, but right now I'm in a project called RSO with Orianthi and I'm really focused on that and I have been since I left the band.”

He added: “There's a lot of love here, that's for sure. When I first walked in, we hadn't seen each other in three years, and they go, "Does it feel awkward?" No... it doesn't feel awkward at all. I mean, they're my songs. We've been playing them: Ori and I have been touring the world now also and I've been playing those songs as my own, because they are.”

He reported that the Bon Jovi band had gone out to dinner the previous night, noting: “You kind of just fall in. There's a caste system in every band, really. Everybody has their distinct jobs that they have to do. … And one of the things I always did was try to keep everyone in the band in a happy mood. I'm that kind of guy, and I keep morale up. That's another job that I did: keeping Jon [Bon Jovi] happy, because he's intense; he's got a lot of stuff on his mind, and he does that to himself on purpose.”

Asked about the potential for a reunion, Sambora replied: “We'll see. You never say never. It's not in any immediate future plan, that's for sure. It's just not. I really want to get this RSO thing off the ground. I'm having a ball.” He suggested that the topic hadn’t come up with frontman Bon Jovi, saying: “this is the first time I've been hanging out with the guys for a good three years. We've had a couple of conversations in between, but it wasn't about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or anything like that. It was more about, "How you doing? How's your kids?”

Jon Bon Jovi was also asked about a possible Sambora reunion, backstage after the induction ceremony. "I think Richie has a solo career," he said before turning it over to his former guitarist. Sambora said he'd take part, "if he asks me."

Sambora and Orianthi release their RSO debut, Radio Free America, in May. He said of the LP: “We hit a songwriting stride where we wrote about 70 songs over a two-year period of time, so I handed 25 songs into the label: two-and-a-half albums.”

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